“It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.” [Luke 15:32]
JESUS’ PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON is a great story with a great ending—at least as far as the prodigal is concerned. But it is actually the story of two sons. And in the celebration surrounding the repentant brother’s return, his elder brother’s true heart was exposed.
As he approached the house after dutifully serving in the field, he heard (of all things) music and dancing. How strange. There hadn’t been a party around that place since his rebellious kid brother left home. But rather than going to his father (could this suggest that the “model son” didn’t have much of a relationship with his dad?), he found a servant and asked, “What’s going on?” The servant gave him the bottom line: “Your brother has returned, and your father is throwing a party,” to which the elder brother responded, not with joy and relief but with anger and a refusal to join the celebration.
I’ve been told that in ancient Jewish culture, when the head of the home left the party—like the father in this story, who went out to find his jealous, peeved son—the music and dancing stopped until the host returned. Isn’t this a picture of what’s happening in many of our churches? There’s no joy, no celebrating, no partying over lost sinners being restored, because the pastor and leadership are distracted by the petty “elder brothers” who are too busy focusing on themselves and nursing their wounded pride to rejoice in the restoration of broken sinners who’ve returned home.
How typical of proud, unbroken people—perhaps even of ourselves—first losing sight of our own need for the gospel, then resenting God’s generous display of grace, mercy, and forgiveness toward others. May the Lord guard our hearts from ever going there!
Have you lost your excitement for gospel transformation in the lives of those around you? What does that say about the condition of your heart? What could help you rekindle a humble, tender spirit? [The Quiet Place]
